As the anti-sanitary pass movement shrinks, it seems to be becoming more radical.

On Saturday, when only 54,000 demonstrators were counted in France (which has more than 24,000 people hospitalized due to the coronavirus), a team from Agence France-Presse was threatened with death and attacked and one of the security guards protecting it injured at the head in Paris, during an anti-vaccination pass rally organized by the movement Les Patriotes de Florian Philippot.

The team, made up of two image reporter journalists (JRI), was accompanied by two security agents to cover the rally from Place du Trocadéro, in the west of Paris.

After the first shots were taken without incident, the situation became tense after the departure of the procession at the Palais de Tokyo, when around 150 individuals, identified as far-right by journalists, arrived near the team.

Paris, France.

Around 200 neo-Nazis, arms outstretched, in the middle of the street, at the heart of the anti-pass demonstration.

Everything is fine.

pic.twitter.com/0Z75iF1GBn

— daphne deschamps (@daphne_dsch) January 15, 2022

A hooded individual with a megaphone said: "It's AFP, fuck these sons of bitches," says the attacked journalist.

At this call, at least fifty people went to the videographer to do battle with her.

The protection agents intervened, allowing the two JRIs to flee.

The security guards were then beaten, in particular with truncheons, while they were protecting the videographer, overtaken by about twenty demonstrators.

Guards and reporters report receiving death threats before one of the security guards was hit in the head with a bottle, splitting his scalp open.

"I'm going to kill you, look at me, I'm going to kill you"

The latter and the two journalists finally managed to take shelter behind a mobile gendarmerie cordon and stopped covering the gathering. “In six years of demonstrations, this is the first time that I have experienced such violence,” testified the journalist, shocked, in particular by the death threats. "The hooded man at the origin of the movement grabbed me and said 'I'm going to kill you, look at me carefully, I'm going to kill you'", she says. “If she had fallen, she would have been beaten up,” adds her fellow videographer.

"The AFP vigorously protests against this intolerable aggression and the desire of some to prevent its journalists from doing their job," said Phil Chetwynd, AFP's news director, who is studying "the possibility of hiring proceedings against such inadmissible acts”.

This is the second attack on an AFP team covering protests against the health pass.

In July 2021, two JRIs received spitting and insults during a demonstration organized by Florian Philippot.

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Society

Coronavirus: Sharp drop in anti-pass mobilization, 54,000 demonstrators in France

  • Violence

  • Florian Philippot

  • Far right

  • Covid-19

  • Sanitary pass

  • Coronavirus

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